Cowboy Fred can be seen riding Sky in the rain at Walker Ranch during a 2012 celebration and demonstration of life in the 1880s.
(
CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

BOULDER -- Boulder County's Parks and Open Space Advisory Committee on Thursday endorsed most of a staff-proposed update of 28-year-old guidelines for managing the Walker Ranch area.

The plan, which next will be considered by the Board of County Commissioners, would set policies and goals for the future uses, protections and preservation of more than 3,600 total acres of county-owned open space parcels in the foothills about 7.4 miles west of Boulder on Flagstaff Road.

The plan suggests development of a "nature play area" at or near the Meyer's Homestead Trailhead on the open space's east side, an area that already includes a picnic shelter and parking lot.

The play area, which could be built with such materials as boulders and logs, could "create simple play features for children and families," according to Parks and Open Space Department resource planner Jesse Rounds.

A majority of the advisory panel's members, however, explicitly voted their opposition to the possibility that the Meyer's Homestead Trail, a 2.6-mile trail running through Meyer's Gulch in the open space area's northern reaches, would be made part of a regional trail network connecting Walker Ranch to other public lands and communities in the mountain and foothills region.

Rounds said in a memo that the draft management plan recognizes the possibility of promoting some recreational activities that haven't been regularly featured in past county plans for the area -- activities such as climbing, some kayaking and fishing.

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Rounds said the plan also focuses on improving existing trails and enabling future connection opportunities for regional trails development. The plan includes possible realignments of portions of the 7.6-mile Walker Ranch Loop Trail, "sections of which have begun to erode dangerously," Rounds said.

"The goal of these reroutes is to simultaneously improve the trail tread and maintain the feel and character of the Walker Loop," Rounds said. "In order to maintain the experience, trails staff will work closely with volunteer and user groups to construct the reroutes and will explore appropriate arenas for parallel segments that can allow for an easy and a hard option."

Sheryl Kippen rings the school bell to get a tour started at Walker Ranch during a 2012 celebration and demonstration of life in the 1800s.
(
CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

The plan also would close the area's original Walker Ranch Homestead, including structures that are a central feature of the Walker Ranch National Historic Landmark. Rounds said those structures "have been painstakingly restored using an exacting set of standards set forth by the (U.S.) Department of Interior."

The Walker Ranch Homestead would continue to be open for county-organized special events and exhibits intended to give a glimpse of what life and ranching in the area was like for "the early European settlers in Boulder County," Rounds said.

Closing the homestead to public access at other times, Rounds said in his memo, is intended to protect those structures and the surrounding landscape outside of those official public events.

The plan also calls for at least seasonal closings of other parts of the overall Walker Ranch area, such as the Castle Rock outcropping on the western edge of the area, where raptors have nested in previous years.

Another section that would be closed to the public would be about 700 acres on the south side of the county open space, an area the county staff has said has become important for wildlife such as bears, raptor nesting and roosting and for riparian vegetation untouched by regular human use.

The county's current management plan for the area dates back to 1985, when the county's ownership amounted to 2,500 acres. Since that time, Boulder County purchases have added more than 1,100 additional acres to its open-space holdings in the Walker Ranch area.

The updated plan would take that additional land acquisition into account while recognizing the importance of studying the protecting the area's native ecosystems.

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